This past Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the fun and inspiring Minnesota Blogger Conference in St. Paul where great speakers Lee Odden, Adam Dince, Jeff Ferrazzo and Dan Morris and more shared their tips and secrets for better blogging.
The MN Blogger Conference is a full-day educational conference for professional and hobbyist bloggers. Keynote speakers, featured guests, and panelists elevate the local blogging community by sharing industry news, best practices, and networking opportunities.
One of the messages we continually heard throughout the day was “people don’t care about what you do until they understand why you do it.”
I thought about this and instantly thought of the clients we design websites for. It really is a profound statement that holds true to most businesses, organizations and bloggers too. Of course presenters were talking about how to use your blog to share the message of what you do and why, and one common way is to tell your story.
But just telling a story is not enough. Your story has to be the best answer your audience is looking for.
Ok, hopefully now you’re thinking, who is my audience, like I was. Lee Odden‘s presentation on “How to be the Best Answer” really got me thinking more about a target audience. I sat there pondering… what answer IS my audience really looking for? How can the reason I do what I do, help someone else? And that made me think of Bob.
Let me tell you about our friend Bob.
Bob is a teacher but he is also a baseball fanatic. Seriously, I bet he could answer every question in a Major League Baseball Trivial Pursuit game. He knows players, coaches, years and mascots like it’s nobody’s business.
Bob came to us to help him build a web presence for his business, Bob’s Baseball Tours, back in 2006. When Bob is not teaching classes at a local high school, he operates a Major League Baseball Tour company where other baseball fans like himself go on motorcoach tours across the U.S. for summer time fun.
We recently had the honor of working with Bob on the redesign of his website to add new functions and also give him the ability to easily manage his website from anywhere he has Internet access. We added new features such as social media integration with his Facebook posts appearing on his website, adding his YouTube video promotion, and also adding a blog. Of course his new website is now mobile responsive for better web viewing, especially since his audience of baseball fanatics are also travelers and mobile device users too.
But designing and building Bob’s website is so much more than a platform of web elements using technology that Bob can manage.
Our goal was to give Bob a marketing tool for current and potential customers to find information on his tours, registration details, to learn more about Bob and his background, as well as a blog to create articles that baseball fans would love.
Little did we know that Bob is an awesome writer and actually has a journalism background. When he shared his first blog article with us, I was literally jumping for joy! As a web designer and digital marketer, there is nothing more gratifying than giving a writer a great tool to share their passion and expertise with their audience. With Bob’s love for writing, his blog and website will give him the avenue to be found by search engines and will offer ways to engage with all of the baseball fans and readers that he will get to put his message in front of.
Bob’s website will offer a way to reach and connect with current and potential customers, but he also has a passion for all things baseball and loves to tell the stories of why he is such a huge fan. His passion shows through his writing, keeps him top of mind with followers and helps other baseball fans by answering questions and offering tips and insights to the game.
Bob’s passion for baseball is WHY he puts on memorable and fun tours. He knows where the best seats are, which ball park has the best hot dog, and he knows how to show his guests a great time with an exceptional game schedule. He uses his website and blog to tell people just that!
If you take the time to create blog articles that will help people understand why you love what you do – articles that are helpful and provide the best answer to what your target audience is looking for – you will gain trust, followers and most importantly new customers too.
Not sure how to get started? Use a content calendar and schedule time to create articles for your blog based on what people are looking for. At the advice of Lee Odden, author or Optimize Book and speaker at the conference, decide what you want to be known for and commit to it. Do some research to find what your target audience is looking for and let your passion shine through!
